Tuesday, March 30, 2010

301 W. 7th Street, Sanford, Florida 32771 This Student Museum is an excellent and rare example of Florida's turn-of-the century school architecture. In 1984 the building was placed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior in recognition of its history and architectural significance to the state of Florida and the nation. The 1902 Romanesque revival style brick building is dominated by a massive three story bell and features decorative corbelling and recessed Romanesque arched entryways. The Student Museum offers Seminole County (Florida) students a unique learning opportunity in the oldest school in continuous use in Seminole County and the second oldest school in continuous use in the state of Florida.

The Student Museum is visited by approximately 6,500 elementary students per school year who are educated about Florida history in a hands on learning environment. The museum features a classroom as it existed in 1902. A pioneer room with a 3/4 size log cabin, and offers teachers instructional liaison in planning activities to support their curriculum.. The potential impact of this facility is that each fourth grade student in the Seminole County, Florida, Public Schools, including special needs students as well as private and home school students can participate in this program. Visitors will see and experience a Timicuan Village, a geography lab, artifacts and displays and photographs and learn history of the local surrounding neighborhoods. The student Museum exists to conserve, preserve, study, interpret, assemble and exhibit materials of educational and cultural value for students.

Welcome to our garden - 10 years and growing

The first garden was established in 1998 by one Master Gardener wanting to demonstrate Pioneer Gardening to students visiting the Student Museum. Since then, many Seminole County Master Gardeners have joined the effort, creating unique gardens, each exhibiting the varieties of plants that grow successfully in Seminole County, Florida.

According to Iroquois legend, corn, beans, and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. This tradition of interplanting corn, beans and squash in the same mounds, widespread among Native American farming societies, is a sophisticated, sustainable system that provided long-term soil fertility and a healthy diet to generations. Growing a Three Sisters garden is a wonderful way to feel more connected to the history of this land, regardless of our ancestry.

Corn, beans and squash were among the first important crops domesticated by ancient Mesoamerican societies. Corn was the primary crop, providing more calories or energy per acre than any other. According to Three Sisters legends corn must grow in community with other crops rather than on its own - it needs the beneficial company and aide of its companions.

The Iroquois believe corn, beans and squash are precious gifts from the Great Spirit, each watched over by one of three sisters spirits, called the De-o-ha-ko, or Our Sustainers". The planting season is marked by ceremonies to honor them, and a festival commemorates the first harvest of green corn on the cob. By retelling the stories and performing annual rituals, Native Americans passed down the knowledge of growing, using and preserving the Three Sisters through generations.

The Iroquois believe corn, beans and squash are precious gifts from the Great Spirit, each watched over by one of three sisters spirits, called the De-o-ha-ko, or Our Sustainers". The planting season is marked by ceremonies to honor them, and a festival commemorates the first harvest of green corn on the cob. By retelling the stories and performing annual rituals, Native Americans passed down the knowledge of growing, using and preserving the Three Sisters through generations.

Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb. Beans fix nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of the plot by providing nitrogen to the following years corn. Bean vines also help stabilize the corn plants, making them less vulnerable to blowing over in the wind. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating, thereby improving the overall crops chances of survival in dry years. Spiny squash plants also help discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans. The large amount of crop residue from this planting combination can be incorporated back into the mound at the end of the season, to build up the organic matter in the soil and improve its structure.

Corn, beans and squash also complement each other nutritionally. Corn provides carbohydrates, the dried beans are rich in protein, balancing the lack of necessary amino acids found in corn. Finally, squash yields both vitamins from the fruit and healthful, delicious oil from the seeds.Native Americans kept this system in practice for centuries without the modern conceptual vocabulary we use today, i.e. soil nitrogen, vitamins, etc. They often look for signs in their environment that indicate the right soil temperature and weather for planting corn, i.e. when the Canada geese return or the dogwood leaves reach the size of a squirrels ear. You may wish to record such signs as you observe in your garden and neighborhood so that, depending on how well you judged the timing, you can watch for them again next season!

Early European settlers would certainly never have survived without the gift of the Three Sisters from the Native Americans, the story behind our Thanksgiving celebration. Celebrating the importance of these gifts, not only to the Pilgrims but also to civilizations around the globe that readily adopted these New World crops, adds meaning to modern garden practicesSuccess with a Three Sisters garden involves careful attention to timing, seed spacing, and varieties. In many areas, if you simply plant all three in the same hole at the same time, the result will be a snarl of vines in which the corn gets overwhelmed! The philosophy of the Student Museum is captured in these words: